Daily Archives: February 17, 2017

Emma Goldman

February 17, 1940: living in Toronto, Goldman suffered a stroke that left her paralyzed on her right side and unable to speak. (see Goldman for expanded story)

February 17 Peace Love Art Activism

The Cold War

February 17, 1947: with the words, “Hello! This is New York calling,” the U.S. Voice of America (VOA) began its first radio broadcasts to the Soviet Union. The VOA effort was an important part of America’s propaganda campaign against the Soviet Union during the Cold War. [Politico article] (see Mar 21)

February 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical Weapons News

UK/H-bomb

February 17, 1955: Britain announced its ability to make hydrogen bombs. (see July 9)

February 17 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

MLK, Jr and perjury

February 17, 1960: Alabama authorities sought to stop the civil rights movement by indicting Martin Luther King Jr. for perjury, claiming he lied about his taxes. Three months later, King went on trial, facing a white judge, a white prosecutor and an all-white jury. The jury acquitted him on all charges. (BH, see Feb 22 – 28; MLK, see May 4, 1960)

George Whitmore, Jr

February 17, 1965: Whitmore’s attorney, Stanley J Reiben, said that he had covered the route supposed to have been followed by Whitmore before the attack on Elba Borrero and stated that Whitmore “would have to have a vehicle or be an Olympic runner” to get from his former girl friend’s house to an elevated subway station seven blocks away, follow Borrero back from the station nearly five blocks to her home, attack her, and run away. (see Whitmore for expanded story)

February 17 Peace Love Art Activism

February 17 Music et al

“Duke of Earl”

“Good Vibrations”

February 17, 1966, Brian Wilson began recording one song: “Good Vibrations.” Six months, four studios and $50,000 later, he finally completed the three-minute-and-thirty-nine-second song pieced together from more than 90 hours of tape recorded during hundreds of sessions. (BB, see May 16; GV, see Oct 4)

February 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Voting Rights

February 17, 1964: theWesberry v. Sanders case involved congressional districts in Georgia. On this date the US Supreme Court decided that each state was required to draw districts so that they are approximately equal in population.

Nationally, this decision effectively reduced the representation of rural districts in the U.S. Congress. Particularly, the Court held that the population differences among Georgia’s congressional districts were so great as to violate the Constitution.

In reaching this landmark decision, the Supreme Court asserted that Article I, Section 2 of the United States Constitution required that representatives shall be chosen “by the People of the several States” and shall be “apportioned among the several States…according to their respective Numbers….” These words, the Court held, mean that “as nearly as practicable one man’s vote in a congressional election is to be worth as much as another’s.” (Oyez site article) (see June 10)

February 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Cultural Milestone

February 17, 1972: the 15,007,034th Volkswagen Beetle came off the assembly line, breaking a world car production record held for more than four decades by the Ford Motor Company’s iconic Model T, which was in production from 1908 and 1927. (see Nov 8)

February 17 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

Lt. Col. William Higgins

February 17, 1988: in southern Lebanon, Iranian-backed terrorists kidnapped Lt. Col. William Higgins, a Marine Corps officer serving with a United Nations truce monitoring group. (Terrorism,see July 3; Higgins, see August 1, 1989)

February 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Japanese Internment Camps

February 17, 2006: Tule Lake Segregation Center was designated a National Historic Landmark. It was not only the largest of the 10 War Relocation Authority (WRA) camps but also the last one to shut down, in 1946, seven months after the end of the war. Tule Lake became a National Monument in December 2008. (see Internment for expanded story)

February 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Dissolution of Yugoslavia

INDEPENDENCE DAY

February 17, 2008: Republic of Kosovo independent from Serbia (partially recognized; not a member of the United Nations). (see July 9, 2011)

February 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Marijuana

February 17, 2010: the Iowa Board of Pharmacy recommended that the Iowa Legislature reclassify marijuana from Schedule I of the Iowa Controlled Substances Act into Schedule II of the Act. A Schedule II drug includes narcotic drugs with a high potential for abuse but with currently accepted medical use in treatment. (see July 27)

February 17 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

February 17, 2011: while large demonstrations in Wisconsin over a bill that aimed at reducing spending on most government employees and remove their collective bargaining rights apart from restricted wage negotiation, 14 Wisconsin Democratic senators fled the state to delay the vote on the bill by preventing a quorum in the senate. (see Mar 11)

February 17 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

February 17, 2015: Judge Guy Herman ruled that the Texas state ban on same-sex marriages was unconstitutional. The ruling emerged from an estate dispute in which an Austin resident named Sonemaly Phrasavath argued that her eight-year relationship to Stella Powell should have been classified as a common-law marriage. Powell died without a valid will in June 2014 after having been diagnosed with colon cancer eight months prior. After her death, a legal dispute over her estate developed between Phrasavath and two of Powell’s siblings. Phrasavath stated that she didn’t intend to set a legal precedent when she entered the court. “I can’t imagine anyone being married for 6 or 7 years, then having to walk away after losing their spouse and feel like the marriage never happened,” she said. [Huff Post article] (see Feb 19)

February 17 Peace Love Art Activism

DEATH PENALTY

February 17, 2015: US Attorney General Eric Holder called for a moratorium on the death penalty pending a Supreme Court decision on the use of lethal injection drugs in Oklahoma.

Speaking at a luncheon at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Holder, noting that he was speaking in a personal capacity and not as a member of the administration, said the “inevitable” possibility of executing an innocent individual was what makes him oppose capital punishment.

“Our system of justice is the best in the world. It is comprised of men and women who do the best they can, get it right more often than not, substantially more right than wrong,” Holder said. “There’s always the possibility that mistakes will be made … It’s for that reason that I am opposed to the death penalty.” (Death Penalty Information Center site article) (see Mar 2)

February 17 Peace Love Art Activism

Immigration History

February 17, 2017: after trying repeated times and getting no answer from the White House and Department of Homeland Security, the Associated Press’s reported that, based on a leaked report, the administration was considering using as many as 100,000 National Guard troops “to round up” undocumented immigrants.

The administration reacted saying that the leaked report was “100 percent false.” An hour later the administration acknowledged that the story was based on a real document. (Guardian article) (see Mar 6)

Nevins’s Sweetwater story began when she was 17 and happened to stop at a coffeehouse on her way home. She sat in with Alex Del Zoppo (keyboards), Albert Moore (flute), and Elpidio Cobian (congas) who were jamming.

That was it. About an hour later she headed home. Eventually, though, she began performing with those three on the coffeehouse circuit. August Burns (cello), Fred Herrera (bass), and Alan Malarowitz (drums) joined and all became Sweetwater.

Sweetwater Nancy Nevins

Eponymous Sweetwater album

In 1968, Reprise Records released Sweetwater’s first album, Sweetwater. The band toured as an opening act for some of the time’s big names: The Doors, Eric Burdon and the Animals, Cream, Grateful Dead, Frank Zappa, and others.

They also found themselves on various TV variety shows such as The Red Skelton Show, The Steve Allen Show, Playboy After Dark, The Hollywood Palace, and American Bandstand. Here’s a clip from an appearance on Hollywood Palace with Bing Crosby’s corny intro:

Sweetwater Nancy Nevins

1969 Festival circuit

Along with dozens of other bands that year, Sweetwater played at many festivals besides Woodstock:

Sweetwater Nancy Nevins

Bad luck and tragedy

For many Woodstock bands, their fame was brief. For others, like Santana, their fame blossomed a year later when their appearance became part of the triple-album and/or the Woodstock movie.

Sweetwater had neither.

And when a drunken driver sped into Nancy Nevins stopped car, her career should have ended, too.

She wasn’t supposed to live. She wasn’t supposed have any mobility if she did live. And she certainly would never sing again if she regained any movement.

Sweetwater Nancy Nevins

Recovery

But after twenty-five excruciating years of rehabilitation, incredible persistence, great medical care, Nevins lives on. Nevins sings some (with a different voice), teaches more (and learns more every day), and realizes how fortunate she is simply to be alive.

Sweetwater released two more albums using some of her pre-accident recordings, but its members eventually went their own way as well.